Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann, AAP state convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur, and lawyer Himmat Singh Shergill accompanied him to the CIA office, where Yadav was interrogated from 11.15am to 8pm and co-accused Kewal Sangha questioned for five hours. “Yadav cannot do anything like this (disrespect Quran). During Ramzan, he visits every Muslim house in his constituency,” said Raees Ahmed, a Muslim among Yadav’s 25 supporters who came over from Mehrauli.

Co-accused Kewal Sangha said he didn’t know Yadav. “We have never met or had a talk about any Rs 1-crore deal,” he said.

Before the interrogation, the MLA said he was available to police at all times. “Even if they keep me till midnight, I will answer each question,” he said. “The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) knows it has lost its base in the state, so it is finding ways to look good in people’s eyes by laying allegation on others.

MP Bhagawant Mann said: “Everyone knows who is behind the Malerkotla incident. The AAP will cooperate with Punjab Police till the end of the investigation.” Senior superintendent of police Pritpal Singh Thind, SP (detectives) Jaskaranjit Singh Teja, DSP (headquarters) William Jeji, and CIA in-charge Satnam Singh were the interrogators. The MLA says the cops behaved badly, grilled him over and again, and used foul language. “I had my worst day,” said Yadav. “No matter how hard police or the SAD try to scare me, I will not step back.”

He declined to tell the media what the interrogators had asked him; and said he had been framed because of political vendetta.

SSP Thind denied the allegation of bad police behaviour. “We asked him about another sacrilege incident as well. We grilled him for nine hours and still a few answers were not satisfactory. He has links with the other accused and we have a strong evidence of it. We will call him again and seek his arrest warrant from court,” he said.

KANWAR SANDHU, NOT KEJRIWAL SHOULD APOLOGISE, SAYS CAPT

Balachaur: Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh said here on Saturday that Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s seeking forgiveness from Darbar Sahib for the manifesto gaffe of his party was just “a drama”.

“Who is Kejriwal to seek forgiveness?” said Amarinder. “It should be former journalist Kanwar Sandhu, who drafted the AAP manifesto and let the broom symbol go on the cover shot of the Golden Temple. It was not inadvertent.” He said by saying sorry, Kejriwal had accepted that his party had committed blasphemy. “Now it is for the Akal Takht (Sikhism’s highest temporal seat) to decide the quantum of punishment to Sandhu,” he said.